Law of Balance
By Les Mottosky
Balance is the natural law only humans seem to defy. It's a code that's readily evident when we study nature. But now that most of humanity lives in cities, we might be creating too much distance from the Earth's lessons.
We're beginning to forget that life requires equilibrium.
We might even be overlooking the reality that humans are nature, but that's a rant for a different article.
Accordingly, impactful organizations are an expression of both heart and brain. Emotion and connection are the engine, strategy and intelligence are the steering wheel. Those two definitions might seem flipped (admittedly I even re-wrote it) but without the emotional connection to what's being created an enterprise will fizzle. Sometimes faster than going to market with the wrong strategy.
This balance of heart and brain can be established and fortified in the boardroom. I've worked in and been a leader of a handful of businesses, and through my advisory and strategic services, I've had a front row seat to hundreds of executive teams. This has lead to me developing a hardheaded opinion that the best leadership team is a more balanced best accessed through women's emotional leaning and the masculine logic bias. An organization absolutely requires both.
But only if it wants to thrive and max-out it's potential.
Does it need to be perfectly balanced, 50/50? Nope. But it requires a strong counterweight that isn't necessarily expressed through quantity, but impact.
The heart requires a meaningful seat at the table.
I first observed this in my formative career years working in a highly profitable and productive ad agency that was named after the female CEO. The leadership team consisted of 5 women and two men. I also did a stint at a brand design agency that was 3 men and a woman. Again: highly productive and profitable. I concluded it was because there was equilibrium between the progression of goals and cultural vitality.
In both cases they prioritized brain and heart. Not 50/50 influence, but 100% listening to – and consideration of – both influences.
Conversely, I also survived two brief experiences in highly dysfunctional agencies. One lead by a dictatorial man, the other, a tyrannical woman. Both were grotesquely profitable, and those riches were wrung from cultural gulags where creatives went to die. Each biz paid their electricity bill on time, but my memories bring up gloomy, dark imagery of both offices.
No team, too much brain, too much bottom line focus, too much concentrated power.
This wasn't wrong, but it was observably miserable for the vast majority of the people producing the work.
After observing and thinking alongside hundreds of leadership teams, I'm confident in saying that when an organization is experiencing challenges, a portion of those difficulties can be dealt with by restoring (or establishing) the brain/heart equilibrium at the leadership level.
With AI being adopted hot and fast as part of organizational strategy, it'll be even more critical for leaders to prioritize heart. AI is a massive digital brain that can mimic emotion – even understand the psychological drivers of it – but it'll never be able to feel or produce it.
When an organization isn't emitting emotion or care, it's limiting the impact of it's mission. Inside and outside of the four walls in which it's headquartered.
In the age of artificial intelligence, authentic emotion will remain a lasting unfair advantage.
TAGS: #Law of Balance #Adaptation As Innovation #Wisdom In Leadership #Radical Reframe #AI Strategy
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist & Advisor // Revealing competitive advantage. I help leaders build aligned creative cultures that can measure their vitality and adapt to rapid change. It's not easy. But it's simple.
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